Hi Alan,
As a matter of fact, I'd previously read your article, and in fact it was that article that got me thinking and led to the posting. I'm very impressed by what I'm seeing here on the axiom site, and regret a bit that I had missed Axiom before purchasing my CSW Towers, as the M80's and the matching surround system might have been even better in my HT.
But, to get back to the subject at hand. While I agree with you that stereo has an intrinsic flaw, it does seem, for the majority of music out there, what we have, unless we DSP the signal- which could be the subject of yet another posting (grin). In my case, I wish to listen to the music I like, by the artists I'm interested in, and in most cases, they wouldn't be the people who are having the gold record levels of sales. Also, I understand that, at the moment many of the SACD and DVD-A discs are remixed from two channel masters, which, I think you'd agree likewise has flaws.
Thus, the majority of my critical listening will be to sources that are inherently stereo, and, as I mentioned, given the greater production costs, for the foreseeable future, most of the music (classical, jazz, world music, reggae, celtic, and so forth) will only be available in CD format, and thus I'd only get surround via DSP like Pro Logic II.
So to bedevil your devil's advocate position, given a choice of flaws.... would I be better served by getting the best possible translation of the 2 channels inherent in the CD to the speakers, or go to the surround option for the best musical listening experience?
